Jennifer Lawrence opens up about dropping out of school at 14: 'I never felt very smart'

In a few short years, Jennifer Lawrence has risen to the top of Hollywood, but her path to success wasn't exactly easy. Or conventional.

In an interview with 60 Minutes released in the US on Friday, the 27-year-old actress revealed that she dropped out of school at just 14.

She recalled that she always struggled in school and "never felt very smart." However, once she started reading scripts, she found she could understand how the characters felt, a natural talent that drove her to acting.

"I know exactly what it would look like if somebody felt that way. That was a whole part of my brain that I didn’t even know existed," she said. "And I didn’t want to let it go."

Jennifer Lawrence. Image: Getty

The next step was a major sacrifice, indeed.

"I dropped out of middle school. I don’t technically have a GED or a diploma. I am self-educated," she explained. "I wanted to forge my own path. I found what I wanted to do and I didn’t want anything getting in the way of it … even friends, for many years, were not as important to me as my career."

It would appear that the risk was worth the reward. Lawrence won her first Oscar for 2013's Silver Linings Playbook (among four career nominations), and has fronted the blockbuster film franchises The Hunger Games and X-Men, all before her 30th birthday.

Fans can next see the Kentucky native in the Russian spy thriller Red Sparrow, which hits Australian cinemas March 1.